Coastal Environmental Management Plan for Bangladesh

COASTAL ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR BANGLADESH Volume One: Summary UNITED _ NATIONS ~ Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific Bangkok, Thailand ST/ESCAP/618 Mention of any firm or licensed process does not imply endorsement by the United Nations. CONTENTS Page Introduetion ....................................... I. DEVELOPMENT-ENVIRONMENT LINKAGE 11. FINDINGS OF THE STUDY 4 A. The coastal environment 4 B. Mangroveforests . 7 C. Fisheries . 12 D. Land and water development projects . 16 E. Biocides . 19 F. Environmental health and sanitation . 20 G. Biomasscrisis. 21 H. Industrial and marine pollution . 22 I. Tourism . 24 111. RECOMMENDA TIONS . .. 25 A. Public awareness and people's participation . .. 25 B. Administrative and regulatory actions " 26 C. Studies, research and monitoring . .. 28 D. Investment projects . .. 31 INTRODUCTION 1. Bangladesh is an extraordinarily rich country in terms of land, water, elimate and people. It is also an equally poor country in terms of efficiency of utilization of these resources, in terms of investment of surplus in dynamic, sustainable development and in terms of mobilization of the vast majority of the people in the process of development. 2. This wealth and this poverty are reflected in the environmental stress affecting Bangladeshtoday. On the one hand, the nation enjoys a beautiful coastalenvironment productive in fish, forests and crops, while, on the other hand, poverty is on the increase: nutritional levelsare falling, wood fuel and food are now in short supply and consumption of fish is declining. On the one hand, shrimp exports are booming, shipping and industrial activity are growing and Dhaka exhibits signs of wealth unimaginable 15 years ago; on the other hand, rivers have become cesspools and shipping lanes sewers, forests have in many cases become scrub and bush, soils have become waterlogged and saline and the once rich variety of fish life has dwindled irretrievably. Such contrasting and conflicting development• environment scenarios have been boldly painted in a unique effort jointly undertaken by E$CAP and the Government of Bangladesh through the development of the Coastal Environmental Management Plan (CEMP) and the audio-visual module entitled "The precious wetlands of Bangladesh". The map on page 3 shows the location of the CEMPstudy area. 3. This summary report is basically divided into three parts, namely, a brief analysis of the development-environment linkage in the context of Bangladesh, the findings of the study and a set of recommendations endorsed by an Interministerial Symposium on CEMP held at Dhaka in June 1987. I. DEVELOPMENT-ENVIRONMENT LINKAGE 4. In trying to establish the Iinkage between development and the environment in Bangladesh, at least two vicious circles can be identified. Pauperization of the masses increases their pressure on the environment: in order to survive, the poor are forced to cut fruit trees for cooking fuel, to over-fish for sustenance and to settIe on fragiIe and unconsolidated land prone to cyclonic devastation. They undercut their children's chances, spend their children's patrimony and starve their children of nourishment. Poverty makes the poor reIentIessenemies of the environment. 5. The second vicious circle involves development: the projects, pro• grarnmes, schemes, technologies and management institutions that turn human labour into economie growth. Very of ten such development undermines the longterm sustainability of resources, and since resource availability is the very basis of development, such development is ultimately self-defeating. If resources are wasted and ruined, development is slowed down and may even be halted. 6. In the past, in promoting environmental proteetion and manage• ment efforts in the countries of the ESCAPregion, the United Nations has frequently encountered such questions as: Why should the poor develop• ing countries worry about environmental degradation when they have other priority areas of concern? In other words, environmental proteetion and management is considered by many to be a luxury only to be enjoyed by the rich countries. Unfortunately, however, if the situation was examined carefully, the opposite conclusion would be drawn. If Bangladesh were rich, it could get away with a greater degree of environmental degra• dation. It could denude its forests and import wood from elsewhere, it could move its most dangerous industries to other countries, it could export pollution with impunity and it could afford to import the protein• rich food and feed needed for its population and livestock. But Bangladesh, of course, is at the other end of that environmentaljresources flow. UnIess, therefore, it wishes to undercut its children's chances and spend its children's patrimony, it should pay due attention to the problem of envion• mental management now. 7. The CEMP report makes it clear that there can be no separation of environment from development - of poverty from exploitation. It em• phasizes that unplanned and uncontrolled projects harm the environment and harm sustained development. It constantly returns to the theme that sustainability is the key, and for sustainability there must be broad• based involvement by all. 8. Sustainability in turn implies that a project should not lead to irreversible environmental inpacts. It implies caution in the face of un• certainty, and it implies the necessity of long-term and multisectoral planning based on the knowledge and wisdom of all people involvedin the development process. 9. Broad-based involvement implies the necessity of focusing on the needs of the poor, not the greed of the rich, to bring them into the devel• opment process as winners and not losers. Thus, for example, the CEMP report has focused on the village environmental aspects of sanitation and biomass, on land-settlement policiesand on the need for collective manage• ment of water and land resources. It is criticalof short-sighted "develop• ment" that spews out toxic chemicaIs, chews up corals, rapes forests and engorges itself on the profits to be made from overexploiting fisheries. 2 Map of the study area MAP OF BANGLADESH Showingthe location of the study area International boundary _ .. _ .. _ .._ i District (old) boundary _'-' _. _.- ) .-i \ '.". i...,,\.. MYMENSINGH ". SYLHET f7' \. ( CHITIAGONG HILL TRAcrS', Western region • \ " ..9...... 1_ ",I:O'~~ .._--..... ,.·~V'I'I: _"".,';~1 ........__ ......... I VI F • v .....) \ .....' / 0 " "'--"_"' \ ~ »» ,.;;:. 0 so ïoo 200 Km. " \-\'ti ' '0":' ' "i.~0~ 6' I SCALE \ ~ I"- .;::- , The boundaries and nernes shown on \. \-~ tf' this mep do not imply official acceptance ' or endorsement by the United Nettons Legend: Tidallimit line. +--+-+- Line showing the salinity limit of 1,000 micro-mhosIapprox. 6,76 ppt) Three braad regtonsof the Bangladeshcoastal area. Study area , 3 10. Although the CEMP report presents an alarming picture of environ• mental trends, there is room for some encouragement as weil. Against the destruction of the east coast's mangrove forests can be set the con• servation of the Sundarbans. Against a decline in the Sundarbans' stock of trees can be set our knowledge of that de cline and some preliminary, though insufficient, steps that have been taken to arrest the decline. Against the salinization and drainage congestion of the coastal embank• ments can be set the opportunity offered by the shrimp boom to reinvest profits and mobilize collective efforts to improve water management significantly. 11. FINDINGS OF THE STUDY A. The coastal environment 11. Bangladesh has an area of about 144,000 square kilometres and a population of more than 100 million. It is situated in the north-eastern part of the South Asian subcontinent and has a vast sea area to the south in the Bay of Bengal. The coastal area of Bangladesh, comprising the complex delta of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) river system, has immense resources with great potential for development. While flowing through Bangladesh on its way to the Bay of Bengal, the river system, carries an estimated annual sediment load of 2.4 billion tons. These sedi• ments are subjected to coastal dynamic processes generated mainly by river flow, tide and wind actions, leading to accretion and erosion in the coastal area of Bangladesh. 12. The coastal morphology of Bangladeshis characterized by: (a) A vast network of rivers; (b) An enormous discharge of river water heavily laden with sedi• ments, both suspended and bed load; (c) A large number of islands in between the channels; (d) The Swatch of No Ground (a submarine canyon) running NE-SW partially across the continental shelf about 24 km south of the Bangladeshcoast; (e) A funnel-shaped and shallow northern Bay of Bengal, to the north of which the coastal area of Bangladeshis located; (f) Strong tidal and wind actions; (g) Tropical cyclones and their associated storm surges. 4 13. These factors act in complicated ways to bring about geomorphologi• cal changes in the Bangladesh coast. The entire coast is about 710 km long and can be broadly divided into three distinct geomorphological regions: the eastern, central and western regions. 14. The eastern coastline extending from the Big Feni River to Badar Mokam (southern tip of the mainland) along Chittagong is regular and unbroken and is protected along the sea by mud flats and submerged sands. The famous Cox's Bazar sand beach about 145 km long is part of the coastline. 15. The eental region runs east from the Tetulia River to the Big Feni River estuary and includes the mouth of the combined GBM rivers. As a resuIt, the region is characterized by heavy sediment input, formation of chars (new lands) and bank erosion. 16. The location of erosion and accretion is dependent on the direc• tional flow of the river currents and the tides. Sites of considerable activity include the northern and southern tips of Hatiya and Sandwip islands. 17. The western region covers the Bangladesh coastline westward from the Tetulia River to the international border (with India) located at the Hariabhanga River.

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